Former Montonero boss Mario Firmenich was hired by Daniel Ortega’s regime

Former Montoneros boss Mario Firmenich found a job: was appointed adviser to Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Although the incorporation was not formalized in La Gaceta (the official newspaper), the economist earns nearly $3,735 a month for their advisory services, as determined by a survey conducted by Nicaragua Investiga and Connectas.

The information was obtained through a leak from the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security (INSS) database, which contains public data on all Nicaraguan state personnel and the net salary that they receive. ‘he perceives.

His arrival in the Nicaraguan public administration does not seem new. The official media La Voz de Sandinismo and Radio Uraccan Siuna had already called the former Montoneros leader a “Advisor to the Presidency for Planning” in September 2020.

At the end of 2021, Firmenich had distinguished himself with other figures in the Sandinista government by participating as an observer in the elections which allowed Ortega to access a fourth term. These elections have been described by the international community as an electoral farce due to a lack of guarantees and transparency. Among the dozens of irregularities denounced, there is an obscene one: seven presidential candidates who were prevented from participating because they had been illegally arrested.

Germany, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Spain, United States, Panama, United Kingdom, European Union (EU), Peru, Ecuador and Uruguay make part of the countries that have publicly condemned the illegitimacy of the election. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has also warned of Ortega’s intention to perpetuate himself in power amid repression, corruption and fraud.

For its part, Argentina issued a brief statement justifying that it maintains its “diplomatic tradition of non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations”. This lukewarm statement drew criticism from Human Rights Watch.

Firmenich, who has lived in Spain for several decades and teaches economics at the Rovira i Virgil University in Tarragona, registered an address in a residential complex in an exclusive area of ​​Managua. According to a promotional video of the property, a model apartment there contains private parking, a spacious living room, three bedrooms with their respective bathrooms and a large patio, among other amenities.

In 2019, he had already traveled to Nicaragua to take part in the 40th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution: during the festivities, he kissed Ortega, who thanked him for his support.

According to the investigation, Firmenich’s hiring violates Article 12 of Nicaragua’s Migration and Foreigners Law, which requires the processing of an identity card as a prerequisite for working and receiving a salary in the country.

This rule also stipulates that foreigners must apply for a residence permit, temporary or permanent, which must be issued by the immigration service “within thirty working days of the request”.

Journalists working on the investigation attempted to contact Firmenich, but received no response. At the end of last year, the former member of the Montoneros convicted in the 1980s of homicide and kidnapping took part in a fashion event organized at the Olof Palme Convention Center in Managua by Camila Ortega Murillo, daughter of the Sandinista dictator and his deputy, Rosario Murillo.

He also gave an interview to the Paco Urondo agency during which he addressed topical issues and warned of the possibility of a civil war in Argentina.

The issue arouses particular sensitivity in Nicaragua: while Firmenich enjoys work and security due to his political affinity with the Sandinista Front, Ortega recently stripped citizenship from 222 political prisoners deported to the United States branded “traitors.” to the homeland”. He also opened legal proceedings against them and stripped 94 other people of their property.

Firmenich was the protagonist of Argentina’s violent decade of the 1970s as the founder and leader of the Montoneros guerrilla organization, accused of carrying out dozens of attacks. some of which continue to be studied today.

For example, the Federal Chamber recently ordered the reopening of a case for the bomb that exploded in the federal police dining room in July 1976, the bloodiest attack of the 70swhich caused the death of 23 people and injured 60. The complaint names Firmenich as one of those responsible for this attack along with Horacio Verbitsky, Marcelo Kurlat, Laura Sofovich and Miguel Ángel Lauletta, among others.

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He was also one of the participants in the kidnapping and murder of Aramburu, according to what the guerrilla himself told in an interview given to Causa Peronista magazine on September 6, 1974, coinciding with Montoneros’ decision to to hide.

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In 1984, Firmenich was sentenced with Fernando Vaca Narvaja and Roberto Perdía to 30 years in prison for the murders of Francisco Soldati and Ricardo Durán and the attacks against Juan Alemann, Francisco Chancellor and Ventura Belford Miño, which occurred in November 1979 during the counter -offensive. .montonera. He had only six years in prison: in 1990, he was pardoned by Carlos Menem.